I thought Debian didn’t include firmware and other binaries by default. I remember having a separate firmware CD for installs on weird RAID controllers. Did that change?

Obligatory link to deflock.me

Consumer reports recently added a privacy rating to their car ratings. I glanced at it a little last year. I think it rated if you could opt out and the reach of the sharing.

I do have to say that I’m generally disappointed with the discussion on this topic every tine it comes up. The majority of responses go contrast to the question. “Don’t buy a car” or “fix up a junker” are generally not helpful if you’ve already decided that your top priority is to have a newer car. Another thread actually recommended to move to another country where you could walk everywhere. Seriously.

Most often a car purchase is a complex decision making process where you need to weigh multiple, often conflicting priorities where privacy is only one aspect. I get the impression that if people followed the advice of the majority of these comments, they’d be living in a tent off grid, hunting for food to stay alive, but living their privacy dream.

My SO calls this diarrhea of the mouth. It’s quite the affliction.

I understand your point, but there have been some successes in bringing these issues to light: City committee rejects Smart Street Lights surveillance policy in San…

There are others as well, I can’t find them now in the sea of articles. There are also large oranizations that can help to get a community organized.

I think the key is to tone down the message a bit to bring the “normies” into the conversation. Talk about a waste of tax dollars, talk about why you should care about privacy when you have nothing to hide. Talk about how these devices are misused and abused for personal gain and rarely assist in bringing criminals to accountability.

Most people don’t care about privacy but may care if their tax dollars are squandered or if their daughter had a stalker.

There are individual solutions, but of limited success. The most effective method is policy change and the most effective way to change policy is with a collection of people.

Form a concerned community member group, grow the group, approach local politicians and city council members, requesting change.

Check out the deflock and EFF web sites for inspiration.

This is the hardest but most effective method. I was able to change a speed limit in the neighborhood and close a road that was being abused as a traffic light bypass by bringing concerned community members together.